Divine victory

At a vast rally on Friday, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah made his first public appearance since Israel's aggressive and ill-fated war, Lucy Fielder reports from Beirut

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"The leader has arrived." A roar greeted the announcement and thousands of fists punched a sky dotted with balloons in Lebanese colours trailing yellow Hizbullah flags. Hassan Nasrallah did not disappoint, addressing his "Divine Victory" rally for an hour, defiant despite Israeli warnings that his days were numbered.

"My heart, soul and mind would not allow me to speak to you from afar or from a screen," Nasrallah told the crowds, which police estimated at over 800,000. He and his aides decided only 30 minutes in advance that his first public appearance since the "33 days' war" should go ahead.

"The resistance today -- pay attention -- has more than 20,000 rockets," the resistance leader said. "[Hizbullah] has recovered all its organisational and military capabilities. It is stronger than it was before 12 July," referring to when Hizbullah seized two Israeli soldiers. " Labbaik " (whatever you wish), the crowd chanted back. "Here we are, Nasrallah!" Flags waved furiously. Coloured streamers burst into the air.

"When we were alone for 33 days of war, with the world just watching, I was praying everyday for God to protect Nasrallah," said a mother of four who would give only the name Muqawamah (resister). Many cried, one man sobbing so hard he could barely raise his fist into the air.

The "internationalisation" of Lebanon's internal affairs is one of Hizbullah's main fears, analysts say. Nasrallah reflected growing Hizbullah suspicion of the government and international interpretation of UN Resolution 1701 that brought about an uneasy cessation of hostilities while Israeli troops remained in pockets of the south. He warned the beefed up UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) against "spying on the resistance" or trying to disarm it and dismissed its blocking of potential arms routes as redundant, given the 20,000 rockets Hizbullah claims to possess.

Under pressure not to deepen sectarian rifts since an uneasy calm settled 14 August, Hizbullah has focused on rebuilding and compensation and generally kept a low profile while critics accused the group of courting disaster by seizing two Israeli soldiers. Supporters have clamoured for the chance to shake off the insult and show pride in Hizbullah's "Divine Victory" -- its resistance to and survival of Israel's ferocious onslaught, which killed more than 1,200 mainly Shia Lebanese.

Former UNIFIL spokesman and American University in Beirut lecturer Timor Goksel said that as well as a celebration, the victory rally was part of Hizbullah's "conflict management style" to ease internal pressure. "They have a very young constituency, some of whom were fighting, some lost their lives. Why are we keeping so quiet, they say, we won a war. They feel they have really done something and they don't want to be insulted."

Most who packed the 37-acre rally site Friday were Shia, but amid the blanket of yellow Hizbullah flags, banners of Hizbullah's Christian allies Michel Aoun and Suleiman Franjieh also fluttered alongside occasional hammer and sickle emblems and Che Guevara's image.

Student Ali Bazii set off the morning before to walk from his ravaged village of Zibqine, south of Tyre, with a yellow banner bearing its name. "We came to show the world our loyalty. We owe everything we have to Hizbullah; our money, our homes, our lives." Bazii no longer has a great deal. His father, who worked for Hizbullah, and grandparents were killed, his home destroyed. Until then, he says, he did not consider himself a die-hard supporter.

Friday was a show of pride and defiance. Nasrallah called for a national unity government -- widely expected to bring in Christian ally Aoun if it transpires -- and said working for one would be Hizbullah's "new project". But there were conciliatory notes also. Hizbullah has been appealing for cross-sectarian unity whilst opposing the 14th March ruling bloc. Nasrallah called for a reopening of the national dialogue of leaders that started earlier this year, a suggestion Walid Jumblatt, Druze chieftain in the 14th March coalition, promptly rejected. "When you separate yourself from the Syrian leadership, I might possibly hold a dialogue with you," he said.

Crucially, Nasrallah said Hizbullah would not hold on to its arms forever, describing them as a "result", rather than a cause, of conflict. He did not rule out future discussion on their status, but linked any such prospect to a strong state.

"There are communities here who are really afraid of Hizbullah supporters and their strength; some really fear that this power could be used internally," Goksel said. "I think this is Hizbullah's main responsibility, to calm down the sectarian fears of other communities while pursuing the reconstruction for their own. There are people in this country who like to play on those fears and say, 'we need to get organised ourselves, make up our own militia'."

Fawwaz Traboulsi, a historian at the Lebanese American University, agrees. "Hizbullah is going to have to be responsible and allay those fears," he said. "People are getting more edgy and resorting more to accusations. It's not enough to say, 'Where did you stand? With the enemy or against it?' We're talking about large numbers of the Lebanese."

Two days after Hizbullah's Friday rally tens of thousands of Christians attended an annual mass for civil war "martyrs" of the Lebanese Forces -- the most powerful Christian militia during the war and now a disarmed party in the majority coalition. Right-wing leader Samir Geagea was present for the first time in 11 years after being pardoned on multiple murder charges dating back to the civil war. He was released from jail after the Syrians pulled out last year. His portrait was everywhere -- smiling, waving or with his eyes closed in prayer.

An ageing bus crawled up the steep hill to the Harissa cathedral north of Beirut. Youths perched on the roof of the bus chanted to the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki: "O Bkirki, say, say: 'Samir Geagea is Christian!'"

To an ecstatic response, Geagea scoffed at the victory Hizbullah claims and accused the group of forming a Syrian and Iranian-backed "statelet" within the state. "They first have to accept national unity and then demand a national unity government," he said.

Geagea pulled Nasrallah's speech apart bit by bit. "They say that there is no army in the world capable of making them drop their weapons. We say that there is no weapon that can make us accept that as the reality." A chorus of anti-Nasrallah and anti-Aoun jeers followed.